The social commentary of Squid Game: reflections on Korean art, space and inequality

Abstract

This paper discusses how communal spaces of childhood activity in Korea are reimagined in the drama Squid Game as part of a social commentary on class and economy. Many spaces shown in Squid Game are nostalgic representations of common Korean playgrounds, parks, and urban neighborhoods. In the show, however, these spaces of delightful memory are transformed into gory places where the literalized violence of neoliberal capitalism plays out. I argue that the creators of the show participate in a history of understanding communal spaces as focal points of social structure and expression that have been crucial in Korea since the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897). The use of such spaces over centuries, including their reenvisioning in modern media, illustrates how political and economic relationships are intimately tied to constructions and perceptions of space. Through a detailed structural, visual, and semiotic analysis of the communal spaces of historical and modern urban Korea, and a comparison with the spaces in Squid Game, I argue that social spaces are intimately tied to social hierarchies and the long history of inequality in Korea.